Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

Hi Zoran,

Interesting and clever idea!

I see that the solenoid lifts the paraffin pen away from the surface of the
board, but what is done to keep the paraffin from running out? Some sort of
capillary action to draw?

Is this the same paraffin used in canning of fruit or whatever in jars, and
also for making candles?

Then again, we used to just DRAW on a blank PCB with a Sharpie permanent
marker, and then etch the board. Another way simple boards were done a
college lab was to draw traces on a masking tape covered PCB, cut them out
with an Exacto knife, and then fill in the cutouts with nail polish! After
carefully pealing off the masking tape, the board could be etched. Perhaps
finger nail polish could be used in an appropriate delivery system? Once
one has the delivery system, then moving the "pen" around on the PCB is a
piece of pie!

An old Rapidograph pen comes to mind. They had wires in the tubes to keep
them from clogging, and to shut off the capillary flow of ink (I think).

Alan KM6VV